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SUSS PSY 369 STUDY UNIT 2: The Key Elements of Emotion - Coggle Diagram
SUSS PSY 369 STUDY UNIT 2:
The Key Elements of Emotion
Functions of Emotion
experiencing, expressing, and regulating emotion are necessary
for our daily functioning.
deficits in emotion have been linked to antisocial behaviour, poor behavioural, poor decision making
The functions of emotion can be analysed on three levels:
the individual,
the dyadic, and
the group
Dyadic Functions: Communication
A dyad refers to two people who are interacting with each other (Niedenthal & Ric, 2017).
Therefore, dyadic functions of emotion
centre around the communication of our emotion to others
through actions, voice, expressions
Facial expressions
Research has shown that there is strong evidence for facial expressions of the basic emotions (i.e. a specific facial expression for each basic emotions)
This essentially means we are telling people how we are feeling nonverbally
Group Functions: Social
Emotion also plays a role in bigger groups, like societies, often being the main reason for groups to form
Emotions in a large group: Die-hard fans
Wann and Branscombe (1990) found that die-hard fans who had
higher fan identification
were
more likely to
bask in reflected glory (
BIRG
) (i.e “we won, I’m so happy!)
whereas fans
lower in fan identification
were more likely to cut off reflected failure (CORF) (i.e. they lost again, such a disappointment), and
less likely to BIRG
Individual Functions: Survival
Emotion exists to
help us to survive
and thrive, even if the feeling is unpleasant.
Specifically, there are three main factors that explain why emotions are functional
physiology,
feelings, and
behaviours.
Functionality of emotions.
on a physiological level we know that the
ANS balances the sympathetic division
through the fight-flight response **and the
parasympathetic division** through the rest-and-digest response
This basic function of emotion is captured in several theories
Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory
states that the
ANS
(through the vagus nerve) has evolved and
implicated in immobilisation, mobilization, and social communication
.
proposes that in adition to facilitating and inhibiting emotional responses, there is a third response of the ANS, freezing, and the importance of social communication
These three emotional modes of responses results in the myriad of bodily reactions which helps us survive.
Evolutionary and Cognitive theory
evolutionary theory and the Cognitive Theory of Emotion believe the main objective of emotion is to
coordinate adaptive behaviour
s to help people attain their goals
Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory
This theory asserts that
positive emotion
help
broaden a person’s cognition and behaviours
.
Having more positive emotion not only enables an individual to be
more resilient
and cope with the demands of life better (Fredrickson et al., 2003), but also
strengthens social connections
with others.
This ties in with the overall them of survivability,
Expression of Emotion
Beyond Facial Expressions
Voice: Prosody
Emotion can also be revealed through nonverbal vocalisations (i.e sighing)
the use of
prosody
in speech (i.e. rhythm, stress, and intonation),
helps provide emotional information
such as anger with a raised pitch and volume
voice conveys only a few aspects of affect, but not specific emotion states
Bodily Expressions
there are systematic and recognizable
relationships between emotional states and
particular
bodily gestures
and/or qualities of movement
Feedback from the body
may
modulate the
intensity of an emotion
embodied simulation
likely plays a role in
recognizing emotion expressions
in the bodily movement
Embodied simulation and bodily expression
For example,
when experienced dancers watch other people dance
, they exhibit
increased activity in motor areas of their brains
(Cross, Hamilton, & Grafton, 2006).
If embodied simulation supports dancers’ perception and understanding of dance moves, it may also
support people’s understanding of others’ bodily expression.
Facial expression
are facial expressions of emotion universal?
The great nature versus nurture debate is central to this argument.
research has shown that we tend to label
facial expressions
with the same emotions, regardless of culture (Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002), and that it is
genetically inherited
.
However,
some refute
that this may be influenced by
cross-cultural learning through media
exposure and interacting with others.
Purpose of Facial Expressions
the real debate with facial expressions is
whether facial expressions reveal a person’s true feelings
or their desire to influence other people
Read-Out View
This perspective views
facial expressions as a reflection of one’s internal emotional state
, maintaining that it is due to the close relationship between emotion and expression
each basic emotion has an innate
affect program and we use
facial expressions to externalize
how we truly feel, whether intentionally or subconsciously when we try to suppress our emotions
Counterargument
There appears to be coherence between emotion and facial expression for emotions like smiling, but
not necessarily for many of the other emotions
like anger and fear as other factors like
situation, intensity, and inhibition of expressions confound this relationship
A smile don't always translate to inner happiness
Behavioural Ecology
This perspective views facial expressions from an
evolutionary perspective
, seeing it as important to communicate a person’s motivations in specific social situations (Fridlund, 1997).
Instead of facial expressions reflecting the communicator’s internal state, this perspective posits that
expressions are signals of what the communicator intends
to do and wants others to do,
for example displays of sympathetic distress to get the attention and comfort of others
The Facial Feedback Hypothesis
The facial feedback hypothesis states that our
facial expressions affect our emotions
When we express facial expressions that are in line with the way we feel,
the feelings are intensified
the facial-feedback hypothesis is correct, then not only do we smile when we feel happy but
smiling can make us feel happy, too, even when we start out feeling sad
Perceiving Facial Expressions: embodied simulation
According to this theory,
people can
use their own brain and motor emotion systems to
re-create, or simulate, the expressions of others
, which gives them immediate
access to the emotions
underlying the perceived expressions
Facial Mimicry
The
simulation process
takes place in the areas of the brain involved in the production of the perceived facial expression and
sometimes involves the actual contraction of the perceiver’s facial muscles
, which is called facial mimicry
Emoji
Facial expressions through emojis are increasingly commonplace in text messages and emails (Kaye, 2018). But To what extent are emojis accepted in today’s digital communications?
A 2017 study found that the use of
smileys in workrelated contexts result in the lower perceptions of competence of the sender
(the one who used the smileys), and as such, the researchers argued that smileys are not equivalent to smiles (Glikson, Cheshin, & van Kleef, 2017)
Emotion Regulation
Emotion regulation is defined as the
process
by which individuals
control the type and intensity of emotions
that they experience and express
it differs from coping as
it occurs over a shorter duration
and focuses on eliminating, diminishing, amplifying, maintaining, or changing the negative or positive feelings induced by a situation
Gross’ Emotion Regulation
Strategies Gross’s process model of emotion regulation posits that we use different strategies at different points in our experience of emotion-eliciting situations
Gross's processes can be classified as either
antecedent-focused or response-focused emotion regulation
Antecedent-focused emotion regulation
involves attempts to control or modify an emotion
before it has even been elicited
(because we know what is to come)
Situation selection
Situation selection, involves
seeking out circumstances
(events or people) that evokes feelings
that you do want to experience
and avoiding those you know you don’t want to experience.
for example: you can decide to go to a party where you will encounter people or events that you know will make you feel good
Situation modification
involves trying to alter the features of a situation in order to modify its emotional impact
for example: asking a housemate to turn her music down to prevent you from feeling frustrated over the loud music
Attentional deployment
Attentional deployment occurs when individuals use
selective attention to limit
(or enhance) their
exposure to the emotionally evocative aspects
of an event
Example: Avert eye contact with the movie screen while watching a horror film.
Cognitive change
refers to
modifying one’s cognitive appraisal
of a situation to alter its emotional impact
Cognitive reappraisal
involves construing the meaning of an emotion eliciting situation differently in order to regulate one’s emotions
Downward social comparison
This invovles comparing your situation with another who is less fortunate or even worse off. This alters one’s construal of the situation and decreases negative emotions
Response-focused regulation
refers to the modification of the subjective, expressive, or physiological aspects of an emotion when the
experience is already occurring
these strategies consists of strategies that people** employ
once an emotion has already been elicited**
Response modulation
refers to
attempts at directly changing
behavioural, physiological, or experiential emotional responses.
A
commonly used form
of response modulation
is suppression
, which involves controlling emotion expressive behaviours
Regulation of expressive behaviour, (i.e
suppression of physical response
)
Regulation of physiological arousal - this is affected by medication such as tranquilizers, which decrease muscle tension and
reduces arousa
l
Regulation of experience, involves focused concentration on, or
suppression of, intense thoughts
that accompany feelings
Rumination
Rumination involves consists of consciously
drawing attention to
(especially)
negative thoughts
and feelings with the goal of m
aking sense of them
, and thus reducing their unpleasant impact.
Engaging in rumination when in a negative mood or dealing with stressful situations is maladaptive as it prolongs and intensifies the negative feelings.
Non-Conscious Regulation of Emotion
automatic regulatory processes are usually
relatively effortless
,
unintentional, and operate outside awareness, i.e., non-conscious
This may occur with
frequent exercise of existing regulatory strategies
For instance, although the emotion regulation strategies such as reappraisal and situation selection, described earlier require effort, they
can become relatively effortless
and automated with frequent and consistent use over time
Biological Basis of Emotion Regulation
The
prefrontal cortex and amygdala
are not only responsible for emotional experience, but also play an
important role in the regulation of emotions
For example, the
amygdala
is
responsible for determining
whether a
stimulus is affectively relevant
and
the
orbitofrontal cortex
is central in
appraising
or changing the meaning of the
emotional stimulus.
Empircal studies
In Gross’ (1998a) paper, an overview of the link between emotion and biological psychology is provided.
He described how
individuals with lesions to the prefrontal cortex
have a tendency to poor affect or emotion regulation, and are hence
emotionally impulsive
.
Individual Differences in Emotion Regulation
studies have also converged on findings of trait differences in emotion regulation
Negative emotion regulation
refers to attempts at diminishing or
eliminating negative emotions
or converting them into more positive feelings.
This
correlates positively with extraversion
but
inversely with neuroticism
Positive emotion regulation
refers to the savouring and
dampening of positive emotions
, processes which are respectively correlated positively and
negatively with extraversion
Positive and negative regulation
Emotion regulation can be segregated into two separate, independent constructs:
negative and
positive emotion regulation
Negative emotion regulation
involves behavioural or cognitive
attempts at
alleviating, maintaining, or even
increasing one’s negative emotions
For example, you may have tried to alleviate your frustration with a reckless driver by
blasting your honk
at the offender
Positive emotion regulation
involves the dampening, maintaining, or
amplifying of one’s positive emotions
For example, you may have tried dampening the joy of receiving a high score by telling yourself that others did equally well.
Why we regulate emotions
Some main reasons why we regulate our emotions:
hedonic motivation (Larsen, 2000),
instrumental motivation (Erber, Wegner, & Therriault, 1996; Parrott, 1993),
to serve prosocial and/or self-protection motives (Niedenthal & Ric, 2017),
or impression management motive (Fischer et al., 2004)